There's nothing quite like the experience of interviewing Cuba Gooding Jr. The 48-year-old New York native is as exuberant in person as when he literally leapt onto the Oscar stage in 1997 to accept his Best Supporting Actor statue. On this particular night, he's holding court on the terrace of the Tap Room at the swanky Langham Hotel in Pasadena for the Television Critics Association winter press tour and is in a celebratory mood as executives, publicists, and TV critics congratulate him on his portrayal of O.J. Simpson in FX's The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story. Our conversation starts off with a reminder that we actually met a month prior at one of FX's private ACS screenings in Hollywood. "Oh yeah, and we were all outside and it was starting to rain," he remembers. "That was a fun night!" Since then, I've now seen all six episodes twice of the critically acclaimed series available to the press (there are 10 in all). He asks for my opinion on all, and I tell him that it took my family three hours to get through the first episode because they kept pausing it every time another A-list actor appeared on

Our conversation starts off with a reminder that we actually met a month prior at one of FX's private ACS screenings in Hollywood. "Oh yeah, and we were all outside and it was starting to rain," he remembers. "That was a fun night!" Since then, I've now seen all six episodes twice of the critically acclaimed series available to the press (there are 10 in all). He asks for my opinion on all, and I tell him that it took my family three hours to get through the first episode because they kept pausing it every time another A-list actor appeared on stage or to fact-check another crazy detail. "Oh my God, do you hear that?!" Cuba exclaims to his manager nearby. "That's hilarious! I love that!"

Hilarious and oh-so-true, which pretty much sums up our interview as well. It's exuberant and off-the-rails, but it's true to Cuba—and the reason why the producers knew they hit a home run with his casting (you can read more secrets about that here). And as much as he swears he doesn't want to reveal too much, Cuba can't help but contain his excitement for the episodes yet to come.

Glamour: The producers wanted to use actual footage of you playing football in Jerry Maguire, but change the colors so it would look as if it was O.J. playing football. Did you know this?

Cuba Gooding, Jr.: No! Is this true? Oh my gosh! [Laughs] That's hysterical, that's really hysterical! It's so funny, because I, in high school, I was in the drama department from the 7th grade on, and I also played varsity football as a freshman in high school. Varsity. People said after I won [the Oscar] for Jerry, did you ever see your life like this? I was like, "I hate to say it, but yeah, I did!" But it was an arrogant thing to say. It's an arrogance you have to have if you're serious about your art.

Glamour: OK, let's talk American Crime Story. Which of your fellow actors most shocked you in terms of their physical transformation for the role?

Cuba: Oh, that's hard! That's hard! Ewww!

Glamour: Don't tell me eww!

Cuba: That's like, F—k, Marry, Kill! Can I do a tie?

Glamour: Fine, do a tie.

Cuba: Of course, John Travolta. That's shocking to see him. If you take John out of it…wait, there's four people. Courtney [B. Vance] was great too. I can't do this. It's a close tie between David [Schwimmer] and Sarah [Paulson], and I think Sarah wins, only because I saw her in her character for American Horror Story, and then I saw her meticulously doing Marcia Clark. She was meticulous. She watched the video and would do certain things.

Glamour: You have more energy than a five-year-old. I realize it must have been hell for you in those courtroom scenes when you had no lines and had to just sit still. You must have been going out of your mind.

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Cuba: Oh, my pants came down a lot! I was mooning those actors!

Glamour: You've taken a stance with the press that you're not saying whether you thought O.J. was guilty or innocent, but has doing this series changed your initial thoughts?

Cuba: Every other day. Every other day. And now, I am so f--king confused. I am! I don't think I haven't been!

Glamour: What part of the series surprised you the most?

Cuba: This has got to be the funnest interview I've ever done! It's gotta be the alcohol!

Glamour: Oh, come on, it's me. I'm making it fun.

Cuba: It's not you!

Glamour: OK, fine. What shocked you the most? For instance, the fact that O.J. took the lie detector test...

Cuba: Yeah, that was f--ked…no, that didn't shock me that he took it, it shocked me how [bad] his results were! [Laughs] That shocked the shit out of me! But was that the most? I have two things that shocked me the most.

Glamour: OK, let's hear it.

Cuba: I'm not gonna say, you have to watch the show.

Glamour: That's a given. If readers are reading this interview, they're pretty much watching the show.

Cuba: You gotta watch show! If I tell you, you'll know! But when you say shocking, can it be anger or frustration?

[A hotel guest comes over to take a picture with him, and Cuba graciously takes time to talk to the fan].Glamour: Wait, the Futhrman tapes and…

Cuba: I just don't know if I want to tell you that. No, I refuse to answer. Counselor! I plead the fifth!

Glamour: What was the most challenging part of filming?

Cuba: Getting out of character at the end of it. Letting it go. It took me a month to just…it really was. I think about certain things. I've talked so much that I don't know if I've told this story, but did I tell you the story of the parallels of his life and mine? The weird life consequences that I knew it was God's will to play this part at this time in my life.

Glamour: No.

Cuba: I'm a huge hockey fan and have been playing hockey for years. So, the last game of the regular season Chicago Blackhawks game, I got tickets to fly and watch the game in Chicago. It was a Sunday. So Saturday, the day before, my daughter had a dance recital. My daughter is 10. I went to the dance recital at this high school. My wife forgot that I was going to be there, so she got me a couple tickets, but I wasn't sitting with her. I was sitting by myself. At the time, we had just gone through some marital bullshit, and I look over and she's sitting with her friends, and I just thought to myself, "Get over yourself." That night, I get on a plane to Chicago, check into the hotel in Chicago, and almost started crying because the night before the bodies were discovered, O.J. went to a dance rehearsal for his daughter Sydney and was pissed off that Nicole didn't have a seat for him with her and his family. He got on a plane to Chicago. It just happened for me recently. So I tell Ryan Murphy what happened when I got back to the set on a Monday, and he says, "You know what's weirder? You know what we shot last night? The murder scene." So technically, I got on a plane and went to Chicago at the same time they were shooting the murder scene. Shit like that happened over and over again during filming! Weird little coincidences like that that really put me in a mental state.

An all-new episode of The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story airs next Tuesday on FX, as the series takes on what really happened during the infamous Bronco chase. Click here for more.